House GOP leaders are poised to skirt Republican opposition to their federal funding plan as they race the clock against a partial government shutdown.

‘We’ve got a lot of people that honestly think a government shutdown is a good idea, or at least don’t want to take responsibility for avoiding one,’ House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday. ‘It’s not good for the American people, it doesn’t work politically…and you’re sent up here to be responsible.’

Normally, a bill would have to advance through the House Rules Committee and then receive a House-wide procedural vote, known as a ‘rule vote,’ before lawmakers decide on the measure itself.

However, rule votes traditionally fall along party lines, regardless of who supports the bill itself.

Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who sits on the Rules Committee, told Fox News Digital on Monday night that he would support the rule advancing through the panel but would reject it on the House floor.

With opposition bubbling up and just a three-seat majority, House GOP leaders likely do not have the votes to pass the rule.

Instead, multiple people told Fox News Digital they expect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put the measure up for a vote under suspension of the rules – meaning it forgoes the House-wide rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds of the chamber.

The bill is a short-term extension of this year’s government funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through Dec. 20. The goal is to give Congress more time to negotiate spending priorities for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1.

A significant number of Republicans are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing it is an unnecessary extension of government bloat. 

However, a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day could come at a heavy political cost for Republicans – something Johnson pointed out to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, three people told Fox News Digital.

Johnson also promised lawmakers they would not be forced to vote on an end-of-year ‘omnibus’ spending bill, which wraps all 12 annual appropriations bills into a massive vehicle – something nearly all Republicans oppose.

Johnson was always expected to need Democratic votes to pass his December CR. Dozens of Republicans have voted against such measures in the past. 

Putting the bill up under suspension of the rules, however, appears to be an indirect acknowledgment that Democrats will need to carry much of the weight for it to pass.

‘Having to rely on liberal Democrats to pass anything is very disappointing,’ Norman said after Tuesday morning’s meeting.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, ‘A CR, an appropriations bill, under suspension? That’s not the way to run a railroad.’

Both said they expected Congress to be forced into an omnibus bill, jammed up against the holiday recess.

Johnson did get some backup from House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., however.

‘I take the speaker at his word that he will not do that,’ Harris said when asked about an end-of-year omnibus.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters that the CR would get a vote on Wednesday, suggesting suspension of the rules was their likely option.

Last week, a more conservative CR – one that would’ve kicked the funding fight into March and attached a measure cracking down on noncitizens voting in U.S. elections – was defeated by 14 Republicans and all but three Democrats.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the 14 rebels who voted against that plan, gave Johnson grace for the position he was in.

‘Speaker Johnson’s on the spot,’ Burchett told reporters. ‘He has to do what he has to do.’

Vice President Kamala Harris said she backs eliminating the 60-vote filibuster requirement in order to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which would federalize abortion access nationwide, during a Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) interview Tuesday. 

The filibuster is a Senate rule that allows a minority to block legislation pending a supermajority vote, so ending it would make it easier to pass laws related to abortion rights.

‘I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,’ Harris said on the ‘Wisconsin Today’ show. ‘And get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do.’

The vice president’s remarks were made during her fourth campaign visit to the battleground state and drew attention from West Virginia independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a strong supporter of the filibuster. Although the former Democrat had indicated earlier this month that he would endorse Harris, he reversed his position due to her comments on Tuesday.

‘Shame on her,’ Manchin said at the Capitol, CNN reported. ‘She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy. It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together. If she gets rid of that, then this would be the House on steroids.’

‘That ain’t going to happen,’ Manchin said, regarding backing the VP for president in November.

Harris also said in the WPR interview that, ‘It is well within our reach’ to keep a Democratic Senate majority and ‘take back the House.’

‘I would also emphasize that while the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House,’ Harris said.

While Harris first said she would support ending the filibuster to reinstate Roe v. Wade era abortion protection in 2022, she has since made abortion a major issue in her Democratic bid for presidency this election cycle. She also supported ending the filibuster to pass the progressive Green New Deal climate legislation in 2019. 

‘With just two more seats in the Senate, we can codify Roe v. Wade, we can put the protections of Roe in law,’ Harris said in September 2022. ‘With two more seats in the United States Senate, we can pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Two more seats.’

‘You know, our President, Joe Biden, he’s been clear. He’s kinda done with those archaic Senate rules that are standing in the way of those two issues,’ Harris said of the Senate filibuster in 2022. ‘He’s made that clear and has said that he will not allow that to obstruct those two issues. And, you know, for me, as vice president, I’m also president of the Senate.… I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and reproductive rights. I cannot wait! Fifty-nine days.’

When the Biden administration nominated Michael Sfraga to be special ambassador to the Arctic, he failed to disclose his deep history with Russia and China. 

The Senate is expected to vote on Sfraga’s confirmation on Tuesday – over a year after his nomination, which was held up by Republicans who claim he is too close to U.S. adversaries. 

Sfraga has traveled extensively across Russia and China, and even spoke at an event where Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the headline address. 

An Alaskan and geographer by background, Sfraga chairs the Polar Institute and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. He is looking to lead the U.S. in diplomatic relations between the eight Arctic nations: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the Russian Federation and the U.S.

His foreign ties prompted Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, to write a letter in 2023 asking the FBI for help in vetting Sfraga, Fox News Digital has learned. 

He negotiated joint partnerships with Chinese academic institutions tied to defense and intelligence services and spoke glowingly about the two U.S. adversaries in interviews for different publications – all of which he failed to reveal until confronted by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff.  

Sfraga had to update his disclosures three times, claiming he had forgotten to mention his record of trips and collaboration with Chinese and Russian leaders, Republicans have said. 

Risch placed a hold on Sfraga’s nomination, which prompted Republican infighting. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R–Alaska, recommended Sfraga to the Biden administration, and she defended him to the committee. ‘If there is any challenge that you have as a committee, it’s that his expertise in the Arctic is so voluminous,’ she said. ‘It takes a while to wade through all of it.’

Sfraga was key in negotiating memorandums of understanding – legal documents that establish a partnership – between the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and Chinese universities, including Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has been designated a ‘high threat’ due to its high-level defense research and alleged ties to cyberattacks. 

The partnership included access to UAF’s IT infrastructure and involvement in policy and legal reviews on any Arctic region subject, in addition to research and exchange programs.

In 2021, Sfraga spoke on a virtual panel on ‘Cooperation and Environmental Sustainability in the Arctic at Fort Ross Dialogue,’ an event sponsored by two U.S.-sanctioned Russian companies, Transneft and Sovcomflot, and Chevron. His co-panelist was ​Russian Ambassador-at-Large for Arctic Cooperation Nikolai Korchunov.

The event stressed cooperation with Russia on Arctic issues. In a 2021 interview with Voice of America’s Russia service, Sfraga claimed Russia and the U.S. were ‘not understanding each other’ and that ‘the Arctic is an integral part of Russia’s DNA.’

In a 2022 Newsweek article on mounting U.S.-Russia tensions in the Arctic, Sfraga is quoted lamenting that the Arctic is no longer insulated from strains in the bilateral relationship. He said it is ‘not a good thing’ that the Arctic Council canceled a forum with defense chiefs, including Russia’s, following Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea. ‘I certainly understand the motives, but it’s not a good thing to have that happen,’ he said. 

In 2021, after Russia’s annexation of Crimea but before the war in Ukraine, Sfraga argued for cooperation with Russia in the Arctic. 

‘If both nations, especially the United States, are looking for places to actually cooperate with the Russians like we do in the International Space Station and trying to find a path towards some amount of productive engagement, I would argue that the Arctic may provide for us at least a few of those pathways to a more predictable and stable relationship between these two countries,’ he said.

At his Senate hearing in March, he struck a tougher tone with Russia. 

‘Russia’s war against Ukraine has rendered cooperation virtually impossible with Russia, including in the Arctic,’ he said. ‘The PRC (China) is attempting to reshape the global aid rules based system in its favor, and increasingly working with Moscow to elevate and advance its presence and its influence in the Arctic in ways that threaten our interests.’

In 2017, Sfraga attended the International Arctic Forum in Arkhangelsk, Russia, an event headlined by Putin and attended by numerous other state-sanctioned people. He was a speaker on a panel entitled ‘Arctic: Territory of Professionals.’ 

When questioned about the event in a Senate hearing, Sfraga said, ‘It’s hard to ignore half of the Arctic, which is Russia, and in the North, it is a big neighborhood, but a small community, and you must engage. And indeed, at one of those conferences, President Putin did provide a keynote address, but I had no interaction with President Putin at all.’ 

Reports show Sfraga has taken at least half a dozen trips to China to participate in panels on Arctic issues. 

In October 2019, for example, he attended the Arctic Circle China Forum in Shanghai, where he spoke to the panel on the topic of, ‘The Arctic Council: A Model for Regional Cooperation.’

In November 2018, he attended the 11th Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he co-chaired the breakout session ‘China’s Arctic Policy: Opportunities and Challenges’ with Dr. Yang Jian, vice president of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

In April 2016, he attended the Fulbright Arctic Initiative Symposium in Washington, D.C., where he met with Chinese representatives from the Polar Research Institute of China and the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration. He also delivered a keynote speech on ‘The Arctic in a Globalized World’ at the China-Nordic Arctic Cooperation Symposium in Beijing.

Additionally, during a 2018 event entitled, ‘The Polar Silk Road: China’s Arctic Ambitions,’ Sfraga is quoted as saying, ‘In the United States, we think four seconds long; we think commercials and sound bites and bumper stickers. But the Chinese think in long narratives; they go over decades… [The United States] think[s] about reaction versus being proactive… as we see the polar ice continue to retreat — and there’s both opportunity and challenge there.’

‘As the Arctic ice continues to retreat, there’s both opportunity and challenge there. How we best situate our own interests and those of like minds is probably best considered quickly. That doesn’t mean we’re pitted against China. I think there are ways we engage with them in a very productive, meaningful dance forward – and that can be for the good of a lot. But we should not be lulled into a false narrative either way.’

Sfraga also has ties to the Arctic Circle – an organization that some have raised concerns about giving China an outsized voice on Arctic issues. Unlike the Arctic Council, which only includes Arctic nations, the Arctic Circle includes China and is its preferred platform to engage on Arctic issues. 

Under Sfraga, the U.S. Arctic Research Council became an official Partner to the Arctic Circle, but his attendance at Arctic Circle events dates back to at least 2016. Olafur Grimsson, chair of the Arctic Circle, described Sfraga as a ‘good friend’ and said he looked forward to collaboration when he was named head of the Research Council. 

Grimsson’s name appeared on a list of pro-Russian European experts who Russia intended to use in an influence campaign targeting the Baltic States. A report by Ukraine state news agency Ukrinform notes that Grimsson opposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 as Iceland’s president and called for turning the old U.S. airbase in Keflavik over to the Russians, and took part in Russian government-organized events.

House GOP leaders are poised to skirt Republican opposition to their federal funding plan as they race the clock against a partial government shutdown.

‘We’ve got a lot of people that honestly think a government shutdown is a good idea, or at least don’t want to take responsibility for avoiding one,’ House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Tuesday. ‘It’s not good for the American people, it doesn’t work politically…and you’re sent up here to be responsible.’

Normally, a bill would have to advance through the House Rules Committee and then receive a House-wide procedural vote, known as a ‘rule vote,’ before lawmakers decide on the measure itself.

But rule votes traditionally fall along party lines, regardless of who supports the bill itself.

Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus who sits on the Rules Committee, told Fox News Digital on Monday night that he would support the rule advancing through the panel but would reject it on the House floor.

With opposition bubbling up and just a three-seat majority, House GOP leaders likely did not have the votes to pass the rule.

Instead, multiple people told Fox News Digital they expect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to put the measure up for a vote under suspension of the rules – meaning it forgoes the House-wide rule vote in exchange for raising the threshold for passage from a simple majority to two-thirds of the chamber.

The bill is a short-term extension of this year’s government funding, known as a continuing resolution (CR), through Dec. 20. The goal is to give Congress more time to negotiate spending priorities for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1.

A significant number of Republicans are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing it’s an unnecessary extension of government bloat. 

But a government shutdown just weeks before Election Day could come at a heavy political cost for Republicans – something Johnson pointed out to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, three people told Fox News Digital.

However, he also promised lawmakers they would not be forced to vote on an end-of-year ‘omnibus’ spending bill, which wraps all 12 annual appropriations bills into a massive vehicle – something nearly all Republicans oppose.

Johnson was always expected to need Democratic votes to pass his December CR. Dozens of Republicans have voted against such measures in the past. 

Putting the bill up under suspension of the rules, however, appears to be an indirect acknowledgment that Democrats will need to carry much of the weight for it to pass.

‘Having to rely on liberal Democrats to pass anything is very disappointing,’ Norman said after Tuesday morning’s meeting.

Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital, ‘A CR, an appropriations bill, under suspension? That’s not the way to run a railroad.’

Both said they expected Congress to be forced into an omnibus bill, jammed up against the holiday recess.

Johnson did get some backup from House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., however.

‘I take the speaker at his word that he will not do that,’ Harris said when asked about an end-of-year omnibus.

Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters that the CR would get a vote on Wednesday, suggesting suspension of the rules was their likely option.

Last week, a more conservative CR – one that would’ve kicked the funding fight into March and attached a measure cracking down on noncitizens voting in U.S. elections – was defeated by 14 Republicans and all but three Democrats.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., one of the 14 rebels who voted against that plan, gave Johnson grace for the position he was in.

‘Speaker Johnson’s on the spot,’ Burchett told reporters. ‘He has to do what he has to do.’

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has spent the last month reviewing plans, strategics and potential tough questions ahead of the Oct. 1 CBS Vice Presidential Debate against Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, according to a source familiar with the preparations by former President Trump’s running mate. 

House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., was selected to play Walz during mock debates to prepare Vance for the Minnesota governor’s ‘folksy’ Midwestern style, the source told Fox News Digital. 

The source revealed that Vance has been doing most of his preparations at his home in Cincinnati or in online sessions with his team. 

Members of Vance’s inner circle – including his wife Usha –  as well as Trump campaign strategist Jason Miller have been involved in prep sessions. The source said those helping Vance are immersing themselves in honing Walz’s debate style by watching videos of his past debates from his previous campaign runs. 

The source also pointed to Vance’s frequent media interviews as helping him prepare for the upcoming debate, set to take place in New York City.

During regular appearances on Sunday shows, Vance has gained experience in engaging in debate often with contentious network hosts and responding to attacks, the source added. 

Meanwhile, Walz’s mock debates will feature U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg acting as JD Vance’s doppelganger, the Associated Press reported, citing people with knowledge of the candidate’s preparations. 

Trump already faced off against President Biden in a June 27 debate hosted by CNN, and Biden’s disastrous performance set into motion his eventual departure from the race and endorsement of Harris. After Trump and Harris took the stage in Philadelphia on Sept. 10 in the second presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle hosted by ABC News, Trump said on TRUTH Social there would be ‘no third debate.’ 

Meanwhile, Harris said in an X post over the weekend she would accept the terms of a debate on Oct. 23 hosted by CNN. During his campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, Trump said Harris has done one debate, while, ‘I’ve done two. It’s too late to do another. I’d love to, in many ways, but it’s too late. The voting is cast.’

Fox News’ Caroline Elliott and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The campaign for former President Donald Trump said it is giving ‘maximum attention and resources’ to its ground game in battleground states, and it’s working.

In key battleground states where voters register by party, and where the margins in 2020 were razor-thin, Republicans have cut into Democrats’ voter registration advantage — in some cases by hundreds of thousands of registered voters. 

During the 2020 election cycle in Pennsylvania, there were approximately 685,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. But going into Election Day 2024, that gap has been cut down significantly, with approximately 343,000 more Democratic voters than Republicans, according to the Trump campaign, which said it compiled the data from secretaries of state offices in Pennsylvania, Nevada, North Carolina and Arizona.

Similarly, in Nevada, there were 87,000 more Democratic voters in 2020 than Republicans. But going into Election Day 2024, there are just 19,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. 

North Carolina shows a similar shrinking gap for 2024, with just 126,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, down from the 391,000 Democratic voters last cycle. 

And in Arizona, by the end of July, there were 259,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats, doubling the GOP advantage since 2020.

‘Everyone who will vote in this election has lived through both administrations, and President Trump wins the comparison easily over Kamala Harris,’ Trump campaign senior adviser Tim Murtaugh told Fox News Digital. ‘The election will be won by those who show up, and that’s where the ground game comes in, which has been a combined effort of the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, and many Republican allies.’ 

Murtaugh told Fox News Digital that the ‘Democrats’ massive lead in voter registration in key states is gone.’ 

‘And in states where the winner will be decided by mere percentage points, it could make all the difference,’ Murtaugh said. 

Neither the Harris campaign nor the Democratic National Committee (DNC) immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

The Trump campaign’s joint-ground game efforts are continuing to expand, but it is focusing its ‘Get Out the Vote’ efforts on low propensity voters and encouraging voters to vote early. 

Across battleground states, the Trump campaign and RNC have hundreds of paid staff, with more than 300 Trump/GOP offices. 

In July, the Trump campaign launched its ‘Trump Force 47’ grassroots effort to recruit new voters. 

The program, which the campaign says is focused on mobilizing ‘highly-targeted voters in critical precincts across the battleground states and districts,’ has already engaged tens of thousands of volunteers. 

Trump campaign officials told Fox News Digital they already have more than 27,000 trained Trump Force 47 captains and continue to train daily, adding thousands per week. 

The efforts stretch beyond the Trump Force 47 leaders, with hundreds of thousands more volunteers for phone banking, canvassing, postcard writing, community organizing and poll watching. 

The joint effort and the Trump Force 47 model are focused on spending ‘maximum attention and resources’ on turning out infrequent or ‘sometimes voters,’ the campaign said.

‘We put a high premium on personal contacts with voters that are less likely to participate in the election and are more disconnected from politics than high propensity or persistent voters,’ a campaign official told Fox News Digital. 

Campaign officials also said they are focused on ‘meeting voters where they are’ more than ever before. 

‘From traditional voter canvassing like calls, doors, post cards, mail, to TikTok, to outside groups, our efforts to reach voters have never been more modern or efficient,’ the official said. 

Fox News Digital has learned that the Trump campaign’s allied efforts will knock on approximately 15 million doors in the voting window across battleground states. 

The Trump campaign’s field efforts have been focused on volume, where its in-house program is focused on reaching voters that were previously missed or less politically engaged. 

‘We have to get our voters to do what they always do — show up at the polls and vote,’ the official said. 

Meanwhile, specifically in Pennsylvania, Team Trump is registering voters at doors, campaign rallies, grocery stores, sporting stores, places of worship, college tailgates and more. 

Officials told Fox News Digital that the team is reaching out to voters of all backgrounds through a wide variety of communities, including Hispanic voters, Jewish voters, Black voters, young voters and senior voters. 

‘President Trump is well positioned to win in November thanks to our robust ground efforts and vast coalition of supporters and endorsers,’ an official said. 

New polls published by The New York Times and Siena College on Monday showed Trump has gained a lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in Arizona, putting the former president at 50 and Harris at 45. Trump is also ahead in Georgia, 49 to 45, and North Carolina, 49-45. 

A RealClearPolitics Average shows Harris leading Trump by less than a point in Pennsylvania, and it shows Trump and Harris are tied in Nevada.